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1861
Year 1861 (MDCCCLXI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). Events of 1861 January - March : in 1861]] * January 1 - Benito Juárez captures Mexico City * January 2 - Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia dies and is succeeded by Wilhelm I. * January 3 - American Civil War: Delaware votes not to secede from the Union. * January 9 - Mississippi becomes the second state to secede from the Union, preceding the American Civil War. * January 10 - American Civil War: Florida secedes from the Union. * January 11 - American Civil War: Alabama secedes from the Union. * January 18 - American Civil War: Georgia secedes from the Union. * January 21 - American Civil War: Jefferson Davis resigns from the United States Senate. * January 26 - American Civil War: Louisiana secedes from the Union. * January 29 - Kansas is admitted as the 34th U.S. state. * February 1 - American Civil War: Texas secedes from the Union. * February 4 - American Civil War: In Montgomery the Confederate States of America is formed by delegates from six break-away United States. * February 8 - American Civil War: The Confederate States of America are formed. * February 9 - American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is elected the Provisional President of the Confederate States of America by the Confederate convention at Montgomery. * February 11 - American Civil War: US House unanimously passes resolution guaranteeing non-interference with slavery in any state. * February 13 - End of the Siege of Gaeta, last stronghold of the Neapolitan King Francis II, by Piedmontese forces. Francis goes into exile. * February 18 **American Civil War: In Montgomery Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the provisional president of the Confederate States of America. **Victor Emmanuel of Piedmont-Sardinia becomes King of Italy. See: Italian unification : Lincoln inaugurated.]] : Confederate flag.]] * February 19 - Serfdom is abolished in Russia. * February 23 - President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrives secretly in Washington after an assassination attempt in Baltimore. * February 27 - A crowd in Warsaw protesting Russian rule over Poland is fired upon by Russian troops killing five protesters. * February 28 - Colorado is organized as a United States territory. * March 2 - Nevada is organized as a United States territory. * March 3 - Formal emancipation of the serfs in Imperial Russia. *March 4 **President Abraham Lincoln takes office, succeeding James Buchanan. **American Civil War: The "Stars and Bars" is adopted as the flag of the United Confederate States of America. * March 10 - El Hadj Umar Tall seizes the city of Segou, destroying the Bambara Empire of Mali. * March 11 - American Civil War:The Constitution of the Confederate States of America is adopted. * March 17 - Proclamation of the kingdom of Italy with Victor Emanuel II as its king. * March 19 - First Taranaki War ends in New Zealand. * March 20 ** An earthquake completely destroys Mendoza, a city on western Argentina. **Surrender of Civitella del Tronto. End of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. * March 30 - Sir William Crookes announces his discovery of Thallium (see Discovery of the chemical elements). : Fort Sumter.]] April - June * April 12 - American Civil War begins at Fort Sumter, South Carolina. * April 13 - Fort Sumter surrenders to Southern forces * April 17 - The state of Virginia secedes from the Union. * April 20 - American Civil War: Robert E. Lee resigns his commission in the United States Army in order to command the forces of the state of Virginia. * April 25 - American Civil War: The Union Army arrives in Washington * April 27 - American Civil War: **President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus in the United States. **West Virginia secedes from Virginia. * May 6 - American Civil War: Arkansas secedes from the Union. * May 7 - American Civil War: Tennessee secedes from the Union. * May 8 - American Civil War: Richmond is named the capital of the Confederate States of America. : Great Comet.]] * May 13 **American Civil War: Victoria of the United Kingdom issues a "proclamation of neutrality" which recognizes the breakaway states as having belligerent rights. **May 13 - Comet C/1861 J1 (the "Great Comet of 1861") discovered in Australia. * May 14 - The Canellas meteorite, an 859 gram chondrite type meteorite struck earth near Barcelona. * May 20 - American Civil War: Kentucky proclaims its neutrality which will last until September 3 when Confederate forces enter the state. North Carolina secedes from the Union. * June 9 - Lebanon separated from Syrian administration and reunited under Ottoman governor with the approval of European powers. * June 15 - Benito Juárez formally elected president of Mexico; he temporarily stops the payments of foreign debt. *June 25 - Abd-ul-Mejid, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1839-1861) dies and is succeeded by Abd-ul-Aziz (1861-1876). : Abdülaziz.]] July - September *July 1 - First issue of Vatican's newspaper L'Osservatore Romano was published. *July 2 - Ivan Kasatkin lands on Hakodate and introduces the Eastern Orthodox church into Japan. *July 13 - American Civil War: Battle of Corrick's Ford takes place in Western Virginia * July 21 - American Civil War: First Battle of Bull Run - At Manassas Junction, the first major battle of the war begins (Confederate victory). * July 25 - American Civil War: The Crittenden-Johnson Resolution is passed by the U.S. Congress stating that the war is being fought to preserve the Union and not to end slavery. *July 26 - American Civil War: George B. McClellan assumes command of the Army of the Potomac following a disastrous Union defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run. * August 5 **American Civil War: In order to help pay for the war effort, the United States government issues the first income tax as part of the Revenue Act of 1861 (3% of all incomes over US $800; rescinded in 1872). **US Army abolishes flogging. * August 27 - Last execution in Britain for attempted murder - Martin Doyle in Chester. * September 3 - American Civil War: Confederate General Leonidas Polk invades neutral Kentucky, prompting the state legislature to ask for Union assistance. * September 6 - American Civil War: Forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant bloodlessly capture Paducah, which gives the Union control the mouth of the Tennessee River. .]] October - December * October 9 - American Civil War: the Battle of Santa Rosa Island. * October 21 - American Civil War: Battle of Ball's Bluff - Union forces under Colonel Edward Baker are defeated by Confederate troops in the second major battle of the war. Baker, a close friend of Abraham Lincoln, is killed in the fighting. * October 24 - The ''HMS Warrior'', the world's first ocean-going (all) iron-hulled armored battleship was completed and commissioned. * October 28 -The Missouri legislature took up a bill for Missouri's secession from the Union. * October 30 -The bill was passed for Missouri's secession from Union. * October 31 **The Missouri's secession from the Union bill is signed by Governor Jackson **American Civil War: Citing failing health, Union General Winfield Scott resigns as Commander of the United States Army. * November 1 - American Civil War: US President Abraham Lincoln appoints George B. McClellan as commander of the Union Army, replacing the aged General Winfield Scott. * November 2 - American Civil War: Western Department Union General John C. Fremont is relieved of command and replaced by David Hunter. * November 6 - American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is elected president of the Confederate States of America. * November 5 - First Racing of the Australian Melbourne Cup horse race. * November 7 - American Civil War: Battle of Belmont - In Belmont, Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant overrun a Confederate camp but are forced to retreat when Confederate reinforcements arrive. * November 8 - American Civil War: The "Trent Affair" - The USS San Jacinto stops the United Kingdom mail ship Trent and arrests two Confederate envoys, James Mason and John Slidell, sparking a diplomatic crisis between the UK and US. * November 21 - American Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davis appoints Judah Benjamin secretary of war. * November 25 - A tenement collapses in the Old Town of Edinburgh and buries 50 - rescuers find 15 of them alive. * November 28 - Acting on the ordinance passed by the Jackson government, the Confederate Congress admitted Missouri as the 12th confederate state. * December 10 - American Civil War: Kentucky is accepted into the Confederate States of America. Undated * News of Henri Mouhot's discovery of Angkor Wat published. * In Britain, the death penalty is limited to murder, high treason, espionage, piracy with violence and acts of arson perpetrated upon docks or ammunition depots. * British Empire establishes bases in Lagos to stop the slave trade. * Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management published. * Estonian national epic Kalevipoeg is published. Ongoing events * American Civil War (1861-1865) * Taiping Rebellion (1851-1864) Births January - June * January 14 - Mehmed VI, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1926) * January 30 - Charles Martin Loeffler, American composer (d. 1935) * February 12 - Lou Andreas-Salome, Russian-born author (d. 1937) * February 15 - Charles Edouard Guillaume, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1938) * February 26 - King Ferdinand of Bulgaria (d. 1948) * February 27 - Rudolf Steiner, Austrian philosopher (d. 1925) * April 8 - Son, Korean nationalist (d. 1922) * April 15 - Bliss Carman, Canadian poet (d. 1929) * May 7 - Rabindranath Tagore, Indian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1941) * May 11 - Frederick Russell Burnham, American Scout, father of international scouting movement (d. 1947) * June 12 - William Attewell, English cricketer (d. 1927) * June 19 - Doctor Jose Rizal, Philippine national hero (d. 1896) * June 20 - Frederick Hopkins, English biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (d. 1947) July - December * September 10 - Niels Hansen Jacobsen, Danish sculptor and ceramist (d. 1941) * September 23 - Mary Elizabeth Coleridge, British poet and novelist (d. 1907) * September 30 - William Wrigley Jr., U.S. chewing gum industrialist (d. 1932) * October 4 - Frederic S. Remington, cowboy artist and sculptor (d. 1909) * October 16 - J. B. Bury, British historian (d. 1927) * October 30 - Antoine Bourdelle, French sculptor (d. 1929) * December 4 - Lillian Russell, American singer and vaudeville star (d. 1922) * November 6 - James Naismith, Canadian inventor of basketball (d. 1939) * December 8 - Georges Méliès, French film director (d. 1938) * December 10 - Fridtjof Nansen, Norwegian explorer, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1930) * December 15 - Pehr Evind Svinhufvud, Prime Minister and President of Finland (d. 1944) * December 16 - Antonio de La Gandara, French painter (d. 1917) * December 20 - Ivana Kobilca, Slovenian painter (d. 1926) *'date unknown'' **William H. Stayton - American founder of the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment (d. ?) **Vengayil Kunhiraman Nayanar - Malayali Journalist and Short story writer (d. 1914) **Harro Magnussen - German sculptor (d. 1908) : See also 1861 births. Deaths January - June * January 2 - Friedrich Wilhelm IV, King of Prussia (b. 1795) * January 17 - Lola Montez, Irish-born dancer and mistress of King Ludwig I of Bavaria (b. 1821) * April 15 - Isaiah Stillman, Major in the Black Hawk War (b. 1793) * March 10 - Taras Shevchenko, Ukrainian poet, nationalist, and founder of Ukrainian literature (b. 1814) * May 29 - Joachim Lelewel, Polish nationalist historian (b. 1786) * June 3 - Stephen A. Douglas, U.S. Senator from Illinois and Presidential candidate (b. 1813) * June 25 - Abd-ul-Mejid, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1823) * June 29 - Elizabeth Barrett Browning, English poet (b. 1806) July - December * July - Frances Longfellow, second wife of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow * July 25 - Jonas Furrer, member of the Swiss Federal Council (b. 1805) * August 12 - Eliphalet Remington, gunsmith and founder of Remington Arms (b. 1793) * August 17 - Alcée Louis la Branche, American Politician (b. 1806) * August 24 - Pierre Berthier, French geologist (b. 1782) * October 5 - Antoni Melchior Fijałkowski, Polish bishop (b. 1778) * November 11 - King Pedro V of Portugal (b. 1837) * December 14 - Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, husband of Queen Victoria (b. 1819) : See also 1861 deaths.